of the Weftminfter General Difpenfary. 363 
One woman was delivered of a twin *•, fee fig. 2. 
84 of the children, or 1 in 23 of the whole number, were 
dead-born +• Of thefe, 49, or nearly five-eighths, were boys, 
and 35 were girls. 
Of 1400 women who returned their letters, or of whom a 
certain account could be obtained, 85, or nearly 1 in 16, had 
There were two ftomachs, two fets of inteftines, which, at length uniting, ter- 
minated in one recftum and anus. There was but one urinary bladder. The 
drawing that accompanies this will give a more juft idea of its external figure ; 
and Dr. hunter, who difleifted it, will probably one day oblige the world with 
an exa& anatomical defcription of it. 
* Of this lingular production, to which I have not ventured to give a name, 
the following is the hiftory and defcription. The woman who produced it is 
about twenty-feven years of age ; this was her firft pregnancy. She was, after a 
labour, delivered of a female foetus, and its placenta, in which nothing uncommon 
was obferved; and although the uterus remained of an unufual fize, yet the pains 
not recommencing, there was no fufpicion entertained but that its bulk was occa- 
fioned by coagulated blood. On the third day the pains became violent, and this 
monfter was born. Its lhape was fpherical, but fomewhat flattened. It mea- 
fured in its Iargeft diameter eight inches, and weighed about eighteen ounces. It 
received its nourifhment by an umbilical chord, to which was attached a portion 
of membranes, and although no placenta was found, it is probable it had a fmall 
one, and that it was inclofed in its own involucrum. It was completely covered 
with acuticula, and a little above the part, where the navel-ftring terminated, there 
was a hairy fcalp covering a bony prominence, fomewhat refembling the arch of the 
cranium. On difle&ion it was found to be plentifully fupplied with blood veflels, 
proceeding from the navel-ftring, and branching through every part of it* It had a 
fmall brain and medulla fpinalis continued into a bony theca, with nerves palling 
from thence through the foramina of the bones ; but no refemblance of any 
thoracic or abdominal vifcera. The reft of its bulk was made up of fat. 
f By dead-born children I mean thofe that die after they have been perceived to 
move, that is, generally after four months. Abortions, or deaths before that 
period, may reafonably be eftimated at double this number ; fo that, perhaps, 
1 child in 8 dies in the womb, or in the a 6t of coming into the world. 
buried 
